Category Archives: Wellness Wednesday Classes

Ever feel overtaken by knee-jerk emotional responses? Want to be less reactive and respond proactively? Need to feel more joy and happiness in daily living?
Emotional aromatherapy can help! That was the hopeful message delivered in a recent class by Amanda Porter—certified emotional healing facilitator, co-founder of Enlighten, and co-author of Emotions and Essential Oils: A Modern Resource for Healing.

Life is an Emotional Journey

Everyone will feel a full range of emotions throughout their life. We may think of emotions in contrast to rational thought, but Amanda asserts, “We’re intelligently designed to have emotions. Their purpose is to teach us, but too often we focus on feeling guilty about them instead. We have to accept, learn, and then change our response in order for emotions to serve us.” Otherwise, emotions can act as overbearing back-seat drivers, taking us where we don’t want to go—again and again!

Get in the Driver’s Seat

One of the most important neurological findings about emotions is that they exist as part of a chemical process in the brain. When an emotional stimulus is repeated, a pre-programmed chemical response becomes more entrenched.

An exciting property of essential oils is their ability to help create new neuropathways. Inhaled aromas directly stimulate the limbic system, which is responsible for processing smell, memory, and emotion. The unique chemical signals of essential oils offer new information to the brain, helping to interrupt old responses and create a new emotional experience.

Call for Roadside Assistance

To prompt desired shifts in feeling and behavior, essential oils that correspond to emotional states should be used both routinely and in the moment. Besides this chemical support, important helps such as meditation, prayer, and perhaps counseling or therapy should be part of an overall wellness pattern.

One of the beauties of essential oils is that each one has multiple properties and uses—both physical and emotional. Another marvel is that different oils may suit the same purpose. So how do you know which oils can help your particular emotional needs?

How Muscle Testing Works

Muscle testing allows the subconscious mind to reveal to the conscious mind what’s happening in the body. “The subconscious mind has all our experience recorded in it. It knows where emotions may be stored—or trapped—and how to release them,” Kellie adds.

Like other physiological responses in a polygraph test, the muscles of the body react certain ways when presented with true or false statements about emotional and physical states. The interrogator—yourself—just needs to know how to frame the questions and read the answers.

The simple “sway test” will get you started. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Relax the knees a bit. Breathe deeply. Say or think, “My name is ______.” Within a few seconds, your body will sway forward slightly in an affirmative response. If you substitute someone else’s name, your body will sway backward in a negative response. (This is the easiest but not the only way to test.)

How Oils Enhance Emotional Release

Once you’ve made a connection with your subconscious, you can begin asking about emotional blocks. A series of true-or-false statements (or yes-or-no questions) will narrow down the source of a problem. Kellie recommends two books about the process: The Emotion Code and Emotions & Essential Oils.

In her class, Kellie used the “Emotions & Essentials Oils” Wheel—a laminated card of negative and positive emotions—to identify emotions and matching oils. She released emotions from several participants with repeated swiping hand movements along one of their governing energy meridians. (In this case, anywhere along the forehead, over the head, and down the back.) “Once a negative emotion is released, it’s also helpful to promote the corresponding positive emotion,” she says. This is done with a reverse movement along the meridian.

“Muscle testing will help you determine the best way to use your oils in the healing process,” Kellie concludes. “You can test for which oil to use, whether to blend it with other oils, how much to use, and how to apply—topically, aromatically, or internally.”

Kellie believes that when your body connects with the right energetic frequency for healing, it will attain it. Muscle testing and essential oils help get you there.

About the Presenter

Kellie Johnson has been a licensed massage therapist for 7 years. Natural healing has always been a passion of hers, and essential oils fit perfectly with what she was trying to accomplish in her massages. While working on her clients, she started noticing that essential oils would calm their muscles down quicker than a regular massage. When she was introduced to Emotions & Essential Oils, her massage approach changed. Now, she muscle tests the trouble areas of the body to see if an essential oil will help her client. Because of this book, she is able to help her client understand why he or she is holding emotional-based pain and tension in his or her body. This allows for a more complete healing treatment.

Do you have an essential oil business and need a way to stay organized? Keeping your business-related documents organized can help you push forward in your business-building adventures. This binder can help you keep the documents you need together and accessible for when you go to business meetings, mentor business builders in your downline, and keep track of information that you can use when filing your taxes.

To create an essential oil business binder, we suggest getting a 3-ring binder and including the below sections and pages. We have designed a few different files that you are welcome to print off and include in your binder. Here are the sections we have included:

My Business Goals Page

If you really want to make your business into something that will provide an income, you need to set some goals to help you stay focused as you build your business. This page provides space for you to set 3 goals and list the steps you need to take in order to accomplish them. If you have more goals than this, try to narrow them down to your top 3 goals so you don’t get overwhelmed. As you accomplish these goals, make new goals so you can continue pressing forward. This page should be placed somewhere that you will see it often to help you remember where to focus your energy. For general help making goals, click here.

Essential Oil Business Planner

This section includes a 2016 calendar, a monthly calendar, and a weekly goal-setting page. The 2016 calendar gives you a general view of the year. The monthly calendar is not specific to a month, so you can print off as many pages as you want and fill in that information. Another way this calendar can be used is to laminate it and write on it with a fine-tip dry erase marker. The weekly goals page can also be laminated and be used to help you plan out your week and assign smaller goals (or the steps to the larger goals) to your week.

Essential Oil Business Contacts

This section includes a contact information page that can help you keep track of the contact information of your upline, downline, AromaTools™, or other business contact information. We also suggest getting business card–size sleeve protectors to help you store your own business cards and those you receive from others.

The other page in this section, called My Business Builders Info, will help you keep track of the people in your downline that also want to build an essential oil business. This page will be useful in keeping track of information that you can use to help mentor them. One of the best ways to build a good downline is to teach and mentor those who are also interested in building a business; so use this page to take notes about them and their goals so you can follow up each time you do a mentoring session.

Essential Oil Business Samples

The best way to get someone to buy essential oils is to offer a sample that they can try. People often fall in love with the essential oils and the benefits they receive when using the oils. Giving a person the chance to simply try out the oils before making a purchase will increase the likelihood of making a sale or signing someone up under you. An important thing to keep in mind is that some people just like free stuff and have no intention of purchasing, so we suggest you don’t give out more than 3 samples per contact. The Sample Tracker page helps you keep track of who you have given a sample to so you can follow up with them at a later date and see how the oils worked for them. Following up on the people you gave samples to will help make sure your samples aren’t going to waste and that you are getting a return on your investment.

The Essential Oil Sample Inventory Page is useful if you make a number of samples ahead of time, so you can keep track of the oils you are giving out in samples. This can be useful information for a number of reasons such as:

knowing what oils are the most popular,

helping you keep popular samples in stock,

and analyzing your costs for samples.

The Essential Oil Business Inventory pages can also help you keep track of the oils or other products that you are using solely for business purposes. There is also a Wishlist page where you can write down oils or accessories that you want to get when you place your next order. On the Wishlist page, you can include a note about where to buy the item, how many you want, or who you are buying it for.

Essential Oil Business Tracking Sheets

Included in this section are a number of tracking sheets that may help when filing taxes. These tracking sheets are the following:

Expense Tracker

Income Tracker

Mileage Tracker

If you are reporting your essential oil business with your taxes, it is useful to keep track of your income and expenses so you know exactly what to report. If you travel a lot for your business, you can keep track of your mileage to report as a business expense.

Essential Oil Business Information

This section is a great place to include any business information, such as how your specific essential oil company compensates or the benefits they provide. Anything with the marketing icon on aromatools.com can be used to help promote your essential oil business.The following are some of our most popular products that would be great to include with your binder:

Essential Oil Business Notes

This lined page helps you keep your notes in one place. We suggest printing this page double sided and including a few in your binder. If you tend to write a lot of notes, you can include a notebook instead. Use this section when you attend classes and gather information or when you are being mentored by your upline members.

Files Available for Download

We have created 4 different designs and some simple refill pages if you wish to save printer ink for the files that you tend to print multiple copies of.

What is an orifice reducer?

If you are new to essential oils, you probably have never heard of an orifice reducer before. The orifice reducer is the clear/white thing inserted at the opening of an oil bottle. Basically, it makes the bottle opening (or “orifice”) smaller and reduces the flow of oil so only a drop comes out at a time.

Why do some orifice reducers work better than others?

Not all orifice reducers are the same, and some control the flow of oil better than others. The factors that usually determine this are the size of the opening in the orifice reducer, the placement of the flow stem (some are in the center; others are on the side), and the viscosity of the essential oil contained within the bottle. One other factor that is fairly easy to control is positioning the air hole according to the oil’s viscosity. How you do this depends on the type of orifice reducer you have.

Side Drip Orifice Reducers with a Center Stem
If you have an orifice reducer with a center stem (also called a “side drip orifice reducer”), the stem is the air hole, and the tiny hole between the 2 circles is the oil hole (hence the name “side drip”). This type of orifice reducer is common on essential oil vials from essential oil companies. To control the flow of oil with these orifice reducers, just find the tiny hole between the 2 circles; then position it down for thicker oils to help a drop come out, and position it up for thinner oils to slow down the number of drops. Positioning the oil hole at the bottom allows thick oils to flow more easily, since the hole is under the oil level, and allows air to flow into the bottle better because the stem is above the oil level. Both of these factors help the orifice reducer release a drop of the thick oil. When you position the oil hole at the top for thin oils, the opposite occurs, and it slows down the oil flow, preventing multiple drops from being released at the same time.

Center Drip Orifice Reducers with Side StemIf you have an orifice reducer with the stem on the side, like the orifice reducers we carry, the oil comes from the center hole, and the air hole is found between the 2 circles where the stem is located. This type of orifice reducer is called a “center drip” orifice reducer. To control the flow of oil with these orifice reducers, just find the tiny hole between the 2 circles; then position it up for thicker oils to help a drop come out, and position it down for thinner oils to slow down the number of drops. Positioning the air flow stem at the top for thick oils allows the air to flow more freely, which releases pressure inside the bottle, allowing the thick oil to drip. When the air flow stem is positioned down (or at the bottom), the air can’t flow as freely, so the oil flow is slowed down. This helps control the flow of thin oils so only one drop is released at a time.

Why are orifice reducers important?

Because an orifice reducer is used to reduce the flow of oil so only a drop comes out at a time, we are able to better control the amount of oil we use. Without an orifice reducer, it would be hard to get a single drop of oil out alone.

I sometimes have a hard time getting oil out of my sample vials. How can I make this easier?

Most orifice reducers have a small hole that allows for air flow, but some of the small orifice reducers (like those found on sample bottles) don’t have an air flow hole. To get a drop of oil, simply tap the bottom of the vial a couple times. Note: The hole is a little small to get a full drop of oil, so it’s pretty safe to assume one tap is about equal to a 1/4–1/2 drop.

How do you insert an orifice reducer?

For regular size essential oil bottles, the orifice reducer and cap come together (sometimes called a Euro cap). The orifice reducer fits inside the cap and will pop into the bottle as the cap is screwed on.

For sample vials, an orifice reducer may need to be pushed in with your thumb, at least a little, before screwing the cap on and finishing the job. If you are putting together a lot of sample bottles, the O Presto tool may come in handy and save your hand a little pain as well as save some time. The O Presto has a slot for the 1/4 dram bottle size and the 5/8 dram bottle size. Simply place the bottle in the correct slot, place an orifice reducer on top, and push the wooden bar down to easily insert the orifice reducer.

How do you remove an orifice reducer from the bottle?

For regular size essential oil bottles, you can often easily remove the orifice reducer by placing the cap angled on the bottle, so the bottom catches the orifice reducer as you push the cap off to the side. Another way is to pry your fingernails underneath and gently pop the orifice reducer off.

For regular bottles and sample vials, the easiest way to remove the orifice reducer is with the aid of an Oil Key for Orifice Reducers. This handy tool has different slots for various types of orifice reducers, including orifice reducers on regular oil bottles, sample bottles, and roll-on bottles. The Oil Key can also help you put the orifice reducer back on when you are finished. You can attach this tool to your key ring or to the zipper on your oil bag so it is handy when you need it!

Because the tiny orifice reducers on sample vials tend to be more difficult to remove and can be ruined in the process, you can get extra orifice reducers here. If you are wanting to refill the sample vial with the same oil, it is much easier to leave the orifice reducer on and just use a small pipette to insert oil through the little hole.

At the start of a new year, many are refreshing their goals of being more active or improving their diet. If these are your goals, we would like to show you how essential oils can help you achieve them. The information below is a compilation from the new sections, “Essential Living for a Balanced, Healthy Life,” “Nutrition and Essential Oils,” and “Exercise and Essential Oils,” found in the 7th edition of Modern Essentials™.

Physical Health: Nutrition

Modern research is finding that food may be the most basic of preventative medicines. There is no magic concoction that will guarantee that you get all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients your body needs. Eating properly is the easiest way to control your health and ensure that your body is provided with all the nutrients it needs.

Developing a healthy diet depends on daily consistency. Following the below guidelines will provide a solid foundation to a healthy diet that will quickly become second nature.

6 Principles of Good Nutrition

1. Adequacy: Getting enough of what you need.
Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are 3 necessary nutrients that provide fuel for the body. The other 3 nutrients—vitamins, minerals, and water—are chemicals used by the body to convert carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into energy.
Sufficient amounts of water are needed to regulate the body’s chemical processes, excrete waste as urine, control body temperature through sweat, and humidify the air we breathe. Eating a nutritionally-dense diet is the easiest way to guarantee the consumption of needed nutrients in adequate amounts. Fresh foods, rather than process foods, are more likely to provide the proper amounts of nutrients needed by the body.

2. Balance: Getting the right amount of what you need.
Cells need the right balance of nutrients to thrive. Too much of a nutrient or too little of a nutrient can cause disease. Eating nutritious foods is the best way to ensure you that you are harvesting all your needed nutrients from your diet. Nutrition supplements are meant to supplement good eating, not replace it. Fad diets, that list main food groups to avoid, will not help and will probably do more damage than good. The more restricted a diet is, the more likely a diet will be nutritionally deficient. If you are following a diet, you will need to plan a little more carefully to ensure you are still getting all the basic nutrients.

3. Calorie Control: Getting the right amount of energy.
Energy intake is directly associated with energy expenditure. Active adults, growing teenagers, and pregnant women require different calorie consumption than the average adult. The most effective way to control calorie consumption is by spreading out food intake over the whole day. Eating small, nutrient balanced meals throughout the day will help maintain a level energy state and avoid excessive hunger.

4. Nutritional Density: Getting the most from your calories.
In general, the more processed a food is, the less nutritionally dense it is. We are bombarded with nutritionally weak food choices that will fill us up but leave us deficient in many needed vitamins and minerals. When trying to determine which foods are nutritionally dense, remember that real foods, like fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans, will provide more nutrition that processed foods, like potato chips, fruit juices, and white bread.

5. Moderation: Getting just enough—not too much.
Eat an assortment of grains, vegetables, fruits, protein foods, and dairy. Most people will not have a hard time eating moderate amounts of these basic food groups. However, foods rich in salt, sugar, and fat should be eaten moderately. Some suggest that if you crave sweets or processed foods, you can eat 100 calories of it without doing damage to your body. Eating just a little can help you satisfy your craving and move on.

6. Variety: Getting nutrients—not bored.
A monotonous diet is likely to produce deficiencies in certain food groups and even certain nutrients. Trying new foods and recipes is an exciting and enjoyable way to add variety to your diet.

Physical Health: Exercise

A strong argument can be made that regular, sustained exercise is even more important to maintaining a healthy body weight than just limiting the number of calories we consume. In addition to contributing to overall health, regular exercise can help increase energy, build muscle, promote healthy body weight, enhance cardiovascular health, increase flexibility, and contribute to better mental and emotional health.

Essential oils can support the body and mind in many different ways to help enhance success during exercise. Modern Essentials™ contains more information about the many ways exercise can support the body and some of the many ways essential oils can help support the body before, during, and after physical activity.

3 Principles of Healthy Activity

1. Regular: Building Habits
A study showed that people who binge exercised throughout their life only had a slightly lower chance of heart disease than people who didn’t exercise at all. On the other hand, it is estimated that those living a sedentary lifestyle have approximately twice the risk of developing coronary heart disease than those who exercise regularly.

2. Type:

Aerobic: Building the Cardiovascular System. Aerobic exercises include activities such as dancing, walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, hiking, tennis, or basketball.

Resistance: Building Muscle. Some resistance exercises include weightlifting, elastic resistance, push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and yoga. Keeping up your muscle mass is important because it helps your body keep dexterity and bone mass. Increased muscle mass can help increase overall metabolism in the body, as muscle tissue naturally burns more calories than fat tissue.

Flexibility: Building Range of Motion. Sufficient flexibility of muscles, tendons, and connective tissue is important in maintaining proper posture and helping to prevent injuries. Stretching before and after strenuous physical activity can be a good way to help prevent injury and to keep muscles loose.

3. Variety: Building an Active Lifestyle.
It is important to change up your exercise activities so you don’t get bored. Find things you enjoy doing, and do something different every day.

Principles of Making Goals

When making exercise and nutrition goals this year, try utilizing these principles so you can keep your goals.

Take a good, hard look at where you are now. It is important to be honest with yourself.

Determine where you want to be. Be positive as you do this.

Keep goals SMART:

Specific

Measurable

Attainable

Relevant

Time Bound

Be accountable to someone. Talk about your goals to others, ask a friend to follow up with you, and write a letter to yourself so, at the very least, you are accountable to yourself.

Break larger goals into smaller steps. If your goal has more than 5 steps, your goal may be too big or too broad, and it may be better to convert it into 2 goals instead.

As you narrow down the steps to your goals, be realistic and figure out where your barriers or pitfalls will be and how you will overcome them. This is where essential oils will be the most useful. Modern Essentials™ can be a great tool in helping you discover ways essential oils can be used to help you overcome the barriers and pitfalls that may prevent you from realizing your goals.

For example, let’s say your desire is to increase your physical activity, and you determine that your goal is to exercise 6 days a week for 30 minutes. Your first step may be to wake up at 6:30 am. One barrier to this step may be that you have a hard time waking up that early. Maybe you can’t wake up in the morning because you have a hard time falling asleep at night. Maybe you are too anxious at nights or you have a hard time breathing or you just need something to help you relax. Once you determine the reason, you can look in Modern Essentials™ for some essential oils to try.

Here is a worksheet you can use to help you set your goal, determine your steps, and figure out the barriers and how you can overcome them. You can also use this paper to hold yourself accountable and track the results of your success.

Teaching a Class on Health and Wellness with Modern Essentials™

Last Wednesday morning, we taught a class at the AromaTools™ building in Pleasant Grove, UT, on this topic. We want to share the class with you so that you can learn and then be able to hold a class of your own to share this information with others.

Are you looking for fun ideas for Christmas stocking stuffers? We’ve come up with lists of great essential oil–related stocking stuffer gifts for every member of the family! These lists include fun gifts that are also great tools for incorporating essential oils into your healthy lifestyle.

As an essential oil business builder, the greatest tools that you have are the essential oils themselves. When you give someone the opportunity to try out a sample of essential oil for the first time, the oil will speak for itself. Once someone has had a positive essential oil experience, they are much more likely to want to learn more about essential oils and to want to try more essential oils and essential oil-based products. They will be excited and enthusiastic about essential oils and the business plan, because they know for themselves that essential oils really work!

If you make essential oils a part of your everyday life, you will find opportunities to share them. People will wonder what that scent is that you are wearing or ask what you are doing to stay so healthy. But you need to make sure that when those questions do come you are prepared to answer them and you are prepared to help the person asking the questions to have an essential oil experience of their own.

Just imagine this scenario: You are sitting on a bench at a park in your neighborhood watching your kids play when another parent comes and sits down next to you. You start talking, and the topic comes up of what you do for work. You mention that you are an essential oil Wellness Advocate, and the other parent is curious and starts asking you questions about what that means. As you talk about essential oils, what they are, and why you use them, you keep thinking, “If only I had an essential oil on me to share.”

The most effective time to share oils is right when someone is interested in learning more—not later when the excitement has died down. So make sure you are always prepared with essential oil samples to share whenever someone shows interest.

At AromaTools™, we carry a large number of tools designed specifically to help you share essential oils with others, so that you are never caught unprepared to share when someone is interested. Below are just a few of those products.

Make sure your sample vials are clearly labeled so you know what they contain and so that the people you give them to also know what they contain. Giving someone a “mystery vial” of oil isn’t nearly as effective as giving them an oil that is clearly labeled to identify its contents. AromaTools™ labels use our patented Oil Lock™ system. Our unique Oil Lock™ layer protects the labels from incidental oil contact and oil drips. Unlike ordinary labels, this layer keeps the oils from smearing or fading the ink when touched with oily fingers. It helps keep the labels looking crisp, clean, and professional—not faded and smudged.

Filling Tools

Inserting orifice reducers into vials and filling tiny vials with essential oils can be a tedious and messy process, so we offer a few tools to make the process easier––and cleaner. The O Presto allows you to easily insert orifice reducers into sample vials. And our Fine-Tip Disposable Pipettes feature a very small tip that easily fits inside the hole of the orifice reducer so that you can fill sample vials without the mess. The Oil Key for Orifice Reducers can help you easily remove the orifice reducer from a sample bottle, regular essential oil bottle, or roll-on bottle. This tool comes in handy when you need to remove the orifice reducer of either your essential oil bottle or your sample bottle to transfer oil.

If you give an essential oil to someone and they have no idea what to do with it, they likely won’t try it. Make sure that you include information about the oil so that the receiver knows how and what to use it for. You will also want to include your contact information on the sample card or brochure so that people can get back in touch with you when they want to know more. It’s a good idea to share first an oil that has a variety of uses and that is gentle on the skin so that a first-time user doesn’t accidentally have a negative first experience with the oil. Attaching a sample bottle to the information you give helps keep the information and oil together so both are available when needed. This 1/2″ hole punch is the perfect size for attaching a sample bottle to any paper product.

We offer a variety of different cards and brochures designed to accompany sample vials:

Keeping essential oil samples on hand to give out when someone is interested is important so that you can share the oils while your contact is interested. Once you have created your sample bottles, you can store them in a sample vial case. Some cases include space to store your essential oil information as well. We offer a wide variety of sample vial cases; choose a size and style that works for your needs:

Information Resources

Always be prepared to answer any essential oil questions that are thrown at you. Make sure that you have access to resources where you can look up answers to your clients’ questions. The book Modern Essentials™ is going to be your greatest resource for finding in-depth information about each of the essential oils. Make sure you have a copy in your home library, and it’s a good idea to keep a copy in your car too for when you need it. We also offer the Mini Modern Essentials™ Usage Guide that contains key sections from the large Modern Essentials book in a more portable size and the “Introduction to Modern Essentials™” booklet which contains basic oil usage suggestions and is the perfect size to keep in a pocket or purse so that you can have it with you all the time. This booklet is one of the best resources to leave in the hands of someone interested in the oils. And lastly, the Modern Essentials™ App is very handy to have on your phone because it contains many answers to questions that may arise at impromptu essential oil discussions.

Once you are prepared with the resources you need, you can confidently share essential oils with others and know that the samples you give away are going to make a difference because you and your clients are both armed with all of the tools for success. Next time you are at the park or the grocery store or the office, you won’t be left thinking, “If only I had a sample of essential oil on me.” Instead, you will find yourself educating, sharing, and building.